1. USD 373 Newton Public Schools
Budget Summary
USD 373 Newton Public Schools
USD 373 is designated by Standard & Poor’s as an Efficient Frontier District

4. The District’s Accomplishments & Challenges
In 2007 the voters of USD 373 approved a $29,910,000 bond issue to renovate and add needed classroom space to district schools. Those projects are now near completion. The Northridge addition was completed in 2008; the Educational Technology Center addition and the vocational improvements in the summer of 2009; Chisholm Middle School renovations and additions during the last school year; and Newton High School, Santa Fe 5/6 Center and Cooper Early Childhood Center additions and renovations will be complete for the start of the current school year.

5. Accomplishments (Continued)
The district has been working for the last year to prepare for reorganization of its K-8 schools. The elementary schools will go from K-5 to K-4 attendance centers. A 5/6 center will house all 5th and 6th grade students in the district and the district will move to one middle school that will accommodate 7th and 8th grade students. The new arrangement will allow for more collaboration among 5-6 and 7-8 teachers and new learning opportunities for students at those levels. K-4 buildings will have room to accommodate future growth as well as expanded programs to benefit students.

6. Accomplishments (Continued)
Overall State Reading and Math Assessment scores at all levels have continued to improve over the past decade.
All three districts in the Harvey County Special Education Cooperative are compliant with all of the State Performance Plan Indicators.
Instructional Services continues to move forward with a multi-year project to implement the Rubicon/Atlas curriculum mapping software. Curriculum mapping will support instructional staff so that they will know where and when they are teaching standards and indicators and provides the ability to communicate this information district-wide with other instructional staff.

7. Accomplishments (Continued)
A committee has been working to organize the district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) model. MTSS is a system-wide structure that insures all students’ needs are met. The district goal for MTSS is to help students learn by specifically identifying skill deficiencies, providing effective instructional strategies to address those deficiencies and continuously monitoring student progress by collecting data to further assist in modifying instruction. The implementation of MTSS is being expanded to include all grade levels in the coming year.

8. Accomplishments (Continued)
American Recovery and Investment Act funds for Title I were used to train additional staff in Reading Recovery and provided much needed instructional resources at the elementary level. The funds were also used to hire an MTSS specialist and provide for summer school at the Eby Learning Center for a two year period. Those funds must be spent by the end of the current school year.
The Harvey County Special Education Cooperative will be providing Gifted Services to all three districts in the Co-op next year. In the past, each district operated its own Extended Learning Program.

9. Accomplishments (Continued)
The district is awaiting final approval of a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create a technology rich media center and provide other technology resources to strengthen teaching and learning at Newton High School.

10. Challenges
The biggest challenge facing the district over the next few years is dealing with loss of state aid. Due to state-wide tax cuts, the faltering economy and declining enrollment, the district has had to cut approximately $2 million over the last two years. The fear is that further cuts will come during the school year. The district received over $2.6 million in federal ARRA money over the last two years to avoid even deeper cuts but the concern is what will happen after 2011 when that money is not available.

11. Challenges (Continued)
The continued challenges of meeting the increased Adequate Yearly Progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation
Increased testing requirements for NCLB and State accreditation
Meeting the increasing needs of at-risk students
Maintaining and updating instructional technology during times of significant budget cuts

12. Challenges (Continued)
Funding and hiring highly qualified special education professionals to keep special education caseloads at a reasonable level
Meeting the needs of students with disabilities who exhibit behavior that cannot be appropriately addressed in a public school setting
Providing affordable health insurance coverage for all staff and understanding and meeting the requirements of the federal health insurance reform legislation

13. Budget Highlights
Overall, the expected budget is up slightly from the current year.
The general fund budget is projected to be up $148,000 from last year due primarily to an increase in new facilities weighting in the general fund. Without the increase in new facilities weighting, the general fund would have actually decreased by about $145, In two years all new facilities weighting funds will cease (approximately $460,000).
The Local Option Budget will increase $320,000. This increase will go to help fund health insurance premiums which increased by an average of about 25% or over $500,000.

14. Budget Highlights
State aid has decreased by over $2.15 million over the last two years. General fund base state aid alone has been cut $412 per student. Cuts include:
General Fund $1,562,074*
Capital Outlay State Aid $250,000
Professional Development $25,000
Parents as Teachers $5,228
Drivers Education $17,000
National Board Certification $2,000
LOB State Aid $295,358
$2,156,660
*Without new facilities weighting, the general fund cut would be $460,000 greater & total loss of state aid would be $2.6 million.

15. Budget Highlights
In addition to the significant increase in health insurance premiums, the district will face increased costs in other areas:
$150,000 estimated increase in utilities due to added square footage from new construction
Increased cost for custodial & maintenance services and supplies
Increase in property insurance premiums over last year’s budget

16. Budget Highlights
In order to compensate for the increase in operating costs, the district made budget adjustments in a wide range of staffing and programs. The district’s goal has been to make staff cuts through attrition instead of terminations or layoffs. Over the last two years, 18 full or part-time positions have not been filled.

17. 2010-2011 Budget Highlights Budget Reductions for 2010-11 Include:
1.0 District Grant Writer
1.0 District Administrative Support Position
2.0 General Fund Aide Positions
1.0 High School Counselor
1.0 Technical Education Teacher (eliminated program)
1.0 Custodial Position Needed for New Additions
3.0 Teachers Hired for 1 Yr. Positions with Title I ARRA Funds
Part-time Clerical/Aide Position at NHS
Elimination of Supervisor of Middle Schools Pay
Reduction in Summer Maintenance
Reduction in 6th Period and Supervision Assignments
Elimination of Paid Professional Dues for Administrators
Elimination of National School Board Association Membership
60% Reduction in Employee Cell Phone Costs
Lowered Programmed Thermostat Settings to Save $16,000
Reduction in the Number of Personal Appliances in Buildings

18. Budget Highlights
The Harvey County Special Education Cooperative will be providing Gifted services to all three districts in the Cooperative beginning in This will add two FTE teachers to the district budget. The increased cost will be paid by increased assessments from the districts and the additional categorical aid generated by those teachers. It will result in no net additional cost to USD 373 and should be a savings for the other two districts.
Hutchinson Community College will operate the Adult Basic Education Program previously operated by the district. This will result in fewer staff employed by USD 373 and an overall savings for the district.

19. Budget Highlights
A significant change in this year’s budget is a $700,000 increase in the K-12 At-Risk Fund. A larger percentage of regular classroom teacher salaries are being charged to the At-Risk fund this year based on increased numbers of at-risk students. This means that a lower percentage of teacher salaries are charged to the general fund but that there is a corresponding increase in the transfer from the general fund to the at-risk fund. This results in no net increase in dollars spent as transfers are subtracted out to determine the net overall budget.

20. Budget Highlights
The budget includes over $3.84 million for debt service on construction bonds. This is a slight increase over last year. Also included in the general fund budget is about $460,000 in new facilities weighting generated by the additions to several buildings as a result of the bond issue. New facilities weighting is generated for two years and requires at least a 25% LOB.

21. Budget Highlights
The budget has been built on the basis of an additional 100 students over actual expectations. This allows for growth without having to republish the budget. A slight decrease of about 9 students is expected from last year. The school finance law allows us to use the current year’s enrollment, the previous year’s enrollment or an average of three years to compute general fund budget authority. The chart in the next slide shows enrollment history using expected rather than budgeted enrollment for

24. Budget Highlights
As mentioned earlier, new Local Option Budget (LOB) dollars are included in this budget. The state aid percentage in the LOB decreased from 54.3% to 53.4%. While Newton’s state aid should have been 58%, sufficient dollars were not budgeted by the Legislature so all districts will only receive 92% of their statutory state aid. In the final analysis, this means that it takes a higher local mill levy to generate the same dollars compared to last year. Those districts that receive no state aid in the LOB were not impacted by the Legislature’s failure to fund the law.
Because the district spends under the per pupil average for its enrollment category, it is eligible to have a 30% LOB next year by board resolution. The actual LOB will be about 27.3%. This is about 0.6% increase from last year.

28. Revenue Sources
The following chart shows revenue for all funds without transfers. State aid remains by far the largest source at about 57.5% of total revenue, which is about the same as last year. The percentage from property & motor vehicle taxes makes up 18%, up 1% from last year. The percentage from federal sources is down 2% from last year. The percentage of revenue from fees, gifts and assessments is about the same as last year.

30. Explanation of Charts & Expenditure Summaries
The following charts summarize all funds, combined General & Supplemental General (LOB) and special education funds. The General and Supplemental General funds are the district’s primary operating funds. Other funds within the budget are special funds which receive special designated state or federal dollars and must be spent for specific purposes. In some cases these special funds are paid for in whole or part by transfers from the general and supplemental general funds or by fees. In some cases balances are used to fund part or all of the expenditures in these funds.
Each of the following charts are broken into seven major expenditure areas. The major expenditure areas for this year are:

31. Explanation of Charts & Expenditure Summaries
Instruction and Instructional Support – These are all costs associated directly with instructing students at the building level. It includes salaries for certified teachers and support staff, aides and paraprofessionals at the building level and all supplies, equipment and materials. Included are all expenses related to student activities and curriculum and instruction as well as technology support.
Building Administration – These are costs associated directly with building administration. It includes building principals and secretarial support.
General Administration – These are costs associated with district-wide administration, including board of education expenses.

32. Explanation of Charts & Expenditure Summaries
·  Operations & Maintenance – These are costs associated with all maintenance, custodial services and utilities. It also includes security services such as the cost for school resource officers.
Capital Improvements – These are costs associated with the construction, remodeling, or repair of buildings and building systems.
·  Debt Service – Costs associated with the repayment of principal and interest on general obligation bonds.

33. Explanation of Charts & Expenditure Summaries
Other costs – The primary expenditures in this area are regular education and special education transportation, business services, food service, employee services and community service operations such as latchkey. Since latchkey is a self-funded operation handled on a reimbursable basis in the budget, there is no money budgeted for Actual expenses are reported in and We are allowed to exceed our general fund budget authority by the amount of latchkey revenue.
Note: Transfers are not included since they represent money that is simply moved from one fund to another. Be aware, however, that this will cause individual funds in the following charts to not match up with the published budget. In the published budget, transfers are subtracted from the total budget and not from the individual funds.
Note also that expenses for the Harvey County Special Education Cooperative are not included in the summary of all funds. This is a change from the previous year. The district’s share of special education costs are already included in the regular special education fund, so many special education costs were previously duplicated. Unfortunately, there is still duplication in the published budget.

35. All Funds Expenditures
Note that the amount spent on instruction & support is up in the budget. Much of this is due to the fact that the money budgeted for the 100 extra students in the general fund and the Special Education balances are budgeted as being totally spent in instruction and support functions. If the 100 extra students do not materialize, we will not have the authority to spend that money. Also, we do not intend to spend the bulk of the special education balances if they are not needed but to use those balances to help with state and federal aid deficits in future years and to stabilize district assessments. Also note that between and , spending per pupil declined about 6%.

40. General Fund & LOB Budgeted Expenditures
You will notice that budgeted expenditures for instruction and instructional support in the General & LOB funds decreased over the previous year. That is because salaries that last year had been spent in the General & LOB funds were moved to the at-risk fund as explained in a previous slide.

46. The Published Budget
The published budget consists of a notice of hearing that shows the total budgeted dollars for each fund as well as the estimated mill levies for each fund. A history of actual costs and mill levies is also published for the previous two years. The published budget lists the maximum amount that can be spent in each fund. The actual amount spent will almost always be less except for the supplemental general fund (LOB) for two primary reasons. First, some contingency has to be built into each fund to allow for unplanned expenditures or unexpected increases in costs. An example would be an unexpected increase in the number of ELL students making it necessary to hire an additional teacher. Even though money will be moved from somewhere else in the budget, we must still publish the budget high enough in the Bilingual fund to allow for the increased expenditure. A second reason the budgeted amount will almost always be underspent is that all balances are shown as spent in the budget even if we intend to have a balance at year end (bond & interest, capital outlay and rec commission funds are exceptions). Some funds must have a balance for cash flow purposes but they are still shown as totally spent in the budget. To get a better comparison of the current year’s budget with previous years, a history of budgeted amounts for the past three years is shown in slides This gives a better picture of the expected increases or decreases in each fund.

51. Additional Budget Information
Included with the full copy of the budget is the budget profile. It breaks down various funds by function similar to what has been done in this budget summary. It also includes a summary of each function by fund. The profile also references the KSDE website where information is available about our buildings and the district.
Another reporting requirement in the budget is a summary of FTE staff and salaries by job function. A two year history and budgeted FTE are provided. Changes in staffing were discussed earlier in this presentation (see slides 16, 17 & 21).

53. Additional Budget Information
Finally, a single form showing budgeted expenditures by fund, revenue sources and cash balances is included with the budget (see slide 55). Note that the bulk of cash balances are in three funds: bond and interest, capital outlay, and Co-op Special education. The balance in the bond and interest fund is there to make a $2.8 million debt payment that is due September 1. The balance in the capital outlay fund includes money set aside for capital projects for this year as well as approximately one year’s worth of expenditures that we try to keep on hand for emergency purchases and repairs. The balance in the Co-op special education fund is used to reduce assessments to the districts and provide for services required for severely handicapped students.

54. Additional Budget Information
Balances in some of the other funds are required for cash flow purposes. The fees and state aid for summer school and driver education programs are collected in the previous fiscal year while most of the costs occur in the budgeted fiscal year. At-risk summer school expenses are now paid out of the at-risk fund so a balance was maintained there. The food service program does not receive federal and state dollars for nearly three months and so must have a balance to purchase supplies and pay salaries to start the year.
The balances in other funds are used to fund the majority of the costs for that program the following year. A good example is the professional development fund. The balance in that fund must pay for professional development activities for the year. At the end of next year we will attempt to transfer money to provide for professional development the following year if funds are available.
The supplemental general fund (LOB) balance is the result of more taxes received than budgeted last year and was used to keep the mill levy down in the current year.

55. Sources of Revenue & Proposed Budget for 2010-11
Sources of Revenue & Proposed Budget for